Play pre-sales Nexus One

ONLINE RETAILER Play is offering pre-sales on the Google Nexus One phone, but at a price that makes us gag.

Despite the Google phone costing about £350 when shipped to the UK from the US, Play is listing the handset for one penny short of £600. A prohibitive price for what is admittedly an unlocked and interesting phone.

So far sales have been sluggish for the device, and according to Flurry Inc retailers have only moved 80,000 units in the first month. By comparison the Motorola Droid fairly flew off the shelves at launch, clocking up some 525,000 units sold.

When it was launched Google's CEO Eric Schmidt said that the Nexus One represented a "new way of buying a phone." However, we suspect that few UK consumers would have imagined that this meant paying through the nose for one.

Play says that the phone, which runs Google's Android OS, will be released on the 16th of February. Sadly, a couple of days too late to hand anyone one of them for Valentine's Day. And far too expensive at Play. µ